


Marked

by hunters_retreat



Series: SPNCIS [3]
Category: NCIS, Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Law Enforcement, Crossover, M/M, Mentions of underage non-con, Supernatural Law Enforcement, Vampires, mentions of underage Sam/Dean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-11
Updated: 2011-03-11
Packaged: 2018-07-11 07:45:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7039078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunters_retreat/pseuds/hunters_retreat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“It’s just like the body in the morgue,” Dean said gently.  “I don’t  talk about vampires.  You don’t … you don’t talk about things like that  when they happen to you.”   Abby didn’t remove her hand from Dean’s  chest but she turned to look back at Sam.  Dean’s hand settled over  hers.  “Or to your little brother."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Marked

 

Gibbs stalked across the crime scene after talking to the local law enforcement officers and Dean nearly flinched at the crisp, clipped words coming from his mouth. “Cause of death?”

Dean watched as Sam looked up from his place next to Doctor Mallard as they examined the body. It felt odd, seeing Sam there but talking to Ducky about the body instead of looking back up at Dean the way he used to.

Gibbs stood over them and Dean was a few steps back, keeping an eye on his brother the way Gibbs had told him too. Not like he needed it, but Gibbs didn’t know that yet. McGee was talking to the locals who’d found the body and DiNozzo was snapping photos of everything. Only Sam had any reason to question his official place at a crime scene and he was doing just fine without Dean looking over his shoulder.

  
A flash made Dean blink and he glared at Tony as the other agent snapped a shot or two of Sam and Ducky.

“It looks like exsanguination,” Ducky said with a sigh. “There is a large wound here,” he said as he motioned to the neck. He stood up, removing his gloves with a disgusted twist of his lips. “The poor soul seems to have bled to death.”

“What caused it?”

“That’s the rather odd part. The wound seems to be caused by teeth marks, only there is no further mauling on his body.”

“You have anything to add, Winchester?”

Dean didn’t say anything but he was intrigued by his boss’s reaction. Normally Ducky would have more than a little to say about the corpse but Gibbs’s question to Sam had cut the older man off. Ducky, who never seemed to get upset with the way Gibbs shut him up, looked down at Sam with an amused grin.

Sam looked at the body for another second before looking at the area. He moved with the easy grace of a hunter and had the familiarity with a crime scene that McGee still hadn’t had when Dean joined the team.

He saw the way the others gave up the pretense of working as they watched Sam doing his thing. Apparently being a Supernatural Forensic Anthropologist wasn’t any different than being a hunter, only you had a whole lot of schooling to get through first.

“Really, you went to school for this?” Dean blurted out without thinking.

Sam looked over at him, smiling that shy smile he sometimes had. “Classes were an easy A, and you’d be amazed how many classes I tested out of.”

“The body, Winchester?”

Sam looked sheepishly at Gibbs before he nodded. “It’s a vampire. The victim bleed to death but there’s no blood on the scene because he was sucked dry.”

“You mean, ‘I vant to suck your blood’ vampires?”

Sam didn’t look amused at Tony’s words, but it was more than just an annoyance at the movie quote. Vampires. Of course their first case together had to be fucking vampires.

“Well it certainly sounds like a gruesome tale, but I’m afraid I’m too old for horror stories young Mister Winchester.” Ducky said with a disapproving smirk. Of all the members of the team Ducky seemed to have the most trouble believing in the supernatural. Once he became familiar with something he was great – throw something they’d already dealt with, like a shifter at him, and he’d go on and on about the strange dog he’d befriended as a child that he always believed had the same eyes as a fellow soldier who saved his life – but until the case was solved and Ducky had learned how to categorize it, he was patronizing and almost rude about it.

Sam didn’t flinch from the tone but pulled his collar aside, looking at Dean as he bared the hideous scars on his neck, scars that matched that of the body far too closely.

“Oh my god,” Dean heard McGee, his voice shaking slightly at the sight of the mangled flesh.

“What happened?” Gibbs asked.

Sam looked at Dean and Dean stared back before answering for his little brother. “It was a bad day.”

“How bad?” Gibbs asked, looking back to catch Dean’s eye.

Dean pulled at his own collar aside, showing the matching scar. “It was a really bad day.”

He tugged the shirt back in place and tried to push the memory back as well. A nest of vampires, Sam and Dean captured, and their father too far away on another hunt to help even though he’d been the one the vampires had tracked back to the motel. They were just lucky Bobby had been around to save their lives. The things they’d done before the scars … those were the things that still plagued Dean’s nightmares and left him begging for his brother’s forgiveness in the dark of the night.

Sam cleared his throat and the others looked back at him, taking the pressure off Dean. He gave Sam a small smile for it, knowing his brother did it on purpose. After everything else, Sam still had his back. Damn, he needed to get Sam alone and talk to him.

His brother leaned down closer to the body and pointed to the wounds. “If you look past the current wound you can see the older injuries. Whoever this is, they’ve probably been missing for months from the pattern of scars here and on the wrists. My guess is you’ll find similar marks on the inside of the thighs as well.”

“So what does that tell us?” DiNozzo asked. Dean could see that Tony was interested in Sam’s observations. He’d recognized the familiarity and the ease Sam moved with and he was testing Sam’s abilities now.

“It means whoever the vampire is he’s got a large blood supply.”

“You’re thinking a nest?” Dean asked.

“Yeah, more than one victim so they can drain them and give them time to heal.”

“So we’ve got more than one vamp and more than one victim still alive.”

“We need to look for large farms or abandoned factories, someplace far from town that could hide a fair amount of people and that would be isolated enough to hide the screams.”

“You think they’re doing more than bleeding them?” Dean kept his voice flat and emotionless. Dean wanted nothing more than to pull his brother away from the hunt already. The image of Sam, covered in blood, a vamp dancing around his lap as she licked across his skin, made him tense and uneasy. It didn’t help that he could see the dread in his brother’s eyes.

“These teeth marks aren’t clean.” Sam said, taking a deep breath. “Doctor Mallard is right. He was mauled. They took the blood-”

Dean nodded, picking up before his brother’s voice could start to waver. “But they got off on the fear.”

“So how did we get this call? The locals wouldn’t have come up with vampires.” DiNozzo said as the others were still watching Dean and Sam.

Sam held up an evidence bag. “These.” Inside were two dog tags.

“So our man is a marine?”

“Only one problem,” Sam said with a shake of his head.

“And what’s that, Winchester?” Gibbs asked.

“The name on the tags is Janine Maple.”

Dean sighed as he made eye contact with his brother. It was gonna be a long fucking day.

 

 

[ ](http://pics.livejournal.com/hunters_retreat/pic/00031kw3/)

 

“So, you’ve been up against vampires before?” DiNozzo asked as he came up beside Sam.

Sam dropped his bag in the side door of the van, watching as the others finished up. Doctor Mallard and his assistant Jimmy were already gone with the body and Sam wasn’t at all surprised that he was getting cornered. Just surprised that McGee wasn’t right there with DiNozzo.

“Yeah,” Sam said with a sigh. “Not one of our best hunts.”

“Heard there were a lot of ‘not our best hunts’ in the day.”

“If you mean for real hunters, yeah,” Sam scoffed. Even though the supernatural had been publicly announced, there were plenty of law enforcement officers who still looked at hunters as criminals. “We didn’t have any resources to call in and the pay was shit. Even on a great hunt you were committing crimes left and right and avoiding the cops, all the while taking out the real nasties that would have the local rent-a-cops pissing in their spit shined shoes.”

“Wow, not a lot of respect for cops.” DiNozzo said as he casually leaned against the side of the car.

Sam shook his head. “I have a lot of respect for cops that accept the facts in front of them. Unfortunately, most of the cops I’ve met just went for what was easy.”

DiNozzo nodded. “Dean seems to feel the same way. It’s gotten him in trouble a few times.”

Sam just smiled. “If there is anything my brother can do in the dark with his arms handcuffed behind his back it’s… well… get out of the handcuffs, and he can do it while pissing off the local LEOs.”

“So, how long ago was the vampire thing?”

Sam frowned trying to think back. “Huh, about ten years ago.”

“You’d have been fourteen.”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“You were hunting at fourteen?”

Sam let out a small laugh. “I was hunting all my life. So was Dean.”

“Time to pack up, Sammy.”

“It’s Sam,” he said out of habit but one look at Dean’s face and he knew something was bothering his brother besides the damn vampires. He hated that he could still read him so well. After four years they should have grown apart in ways that made his brother indecipherable.

Sam looked at DiNozzo in his periphery and saw the way the agent was looking between the two of them and then Sam understood. His brother had kept his personal life, as much of his hunting past as he could, private. He knew Dean would never hold back information on a hunt but that didn’t mean his brother would be forthcoming about the details – like age and why a fourteen year old was hunting at all – to his teammates.

Sam took a seat in the van, nodding once at his brother. When Gibbs pulled out onto the road he grabbed the seat, trying to hold on.  
“Missing the Impala?”

Sam looked over at his brother and nodded. He knew his brother was just teasing, making light of Gibbs’s horrific driving skills but it hit Sam hard. His voice was quiet when he answered. “For years.”

 

 

[ ](http://pics.livejournal.com/hunters_retreat/pic/00031kw3/)

 

Dean stood before the monitor, looking at the map of the area. Three more victims in the two closest counties had been found after NCIS took over the case. Tony was out with McGee, trying to get more information about the disappearance of Janine Maple. Their unnamed marine was still in the lab, no identifying marks to name him yet. Ducky was working on the body and Abby had her magic to work. Sam had taken a good look at the body with Ducky and just like Sam had predicted, there were bite marks on the man’s inner thighs. Not that he doubted his brother, but it had been nice to see Ducky’s appraising look as he realized Sam might be more than just the muscle his appearance gave.

After that Sam had disappeared back into Abby’s –their – lab. One of the advantages of going legit, according to his brother, was the appearance of databases. Sam told him they had an actual DNA base for some of the creatures that had escaped custody at one time or another, even if they didn’t always have names. They also had chemical compounds that were specific to the things that went bump in the night. Vampires left behind a certain biological signature in the saliva so there was a chance they might find links to other hunts. Not likely as the database was still small, but it was a place to start.

In the meantime, Dean was trying to get his head around their killer’s location. It was a suburban area, not a lot of open space for the kind of nest they were looking for. He wasn’t sure how long he stared at the map on the large TV screen before he heard the others coming back.

“Guess there’s no Castle Dracula to point the way to his dastardly lair,” DiNozzo commented as he threw his bag behind his desk and came up beside Dean.

“No castles, sorry to disillusion you.”

“What about the brides?” Tony asked with a smile. “Are they as hot as the movies?” He said as he continued talking, but Dean could see his eyes working over the monitor the same as Dean’s did. “I still have dreams about Lucy from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. 1992, Gary Oldman as Dracula and Winona Ryder as Mina. Not a bad movie and certainly plenty of creep factor from Oldman but you just can’t out Dracula Christopher Lee.”

“This isn’t a movie, DiNozzo,” Dean snapped, physically shoving past Tony even though he could have easily moved away without the push. McGee was out of his seat, watching him, and he could feel Tony’s eyes on his back. Dean normally encouraged Tony’s ramblings, got a kick out of watching his mind wind around movie facts all the while picking up bits and pieces of instinct and turning them into something insightful about the case.

“Is there a problem, Winchester?”

Dean looked up and shook his head. Of course the boss just happened to walk up for that. “Not at all. Just gonna check in with the lab.” He grabbed his jacket - that he didn’t need to go to the lab - and was grateful that Gibbs didn’t call him on it.

 

 

[ ](http://pics.livejournal.com/hunters_retreat/pic/00031kw3/)

 

 

“So how goes it my little Siren?”

Sam looked up from the microscope to see his brother handing Abby one of the super-sized Caf-Pows. He had no idea how she slept at night with the amount of sugar and caffeine in her body, but it seemed like the whole team was a group of caffeine addicts. When Dean slid a cup over to him without saying anything Sam took it with a smile.

He pulled open the lid and the sweet smell hit him immediately. He took a sip and sighed at the taste, grateful for Dean’s consideration and for the fact that his brother remembered the way he liked his coffee.

“Seriously, Dean? Vampires? You have to tell me more because your brother isn’t talking.”

“Sammy? Don’t worry Abs, he’ll be talking up a storm once you get to know him. Trust me, he won’t shut up.”

“Spill. I want details. Vampires, Dean. Real vampires and you never said anything to me.”

“Abby-”

“I sleep in a coffin, Dean!”

“You do what?” Sam couldn’t help himself at that. Dean glared at him, like he was supposed to stay hidden in the lab while his brother was there but hey, it wasn’t Dean’s lab.

“I sleep in a coffin,” Abby said again, barely sparing Sam a glance.

He could see Dean clenching his teeth. She hadn’t been there with the others, hadn’t seen the scars and obviously no one had told her. He watched as Dean took her hand and pushed it under his shirt collar. He could see her stiffen the moment her fingers touched the vampire’s mark on Dean’s neck. He pushed down the irrational jealousy that reared its head, all the while remembering how they’d earned those scars. She didn’t have a right to it.

“Dean, that feels like-”

“It’s just like the body in the morgue,” Dean said gently. “I don’t talk about vampires. You don’t … you don’t talk about things like that when they happen to you.”

Abby didn’t remove her hand from Dean’s chest but she turned to look back at Sam. Dean’s hand settled over hers. “Or to your little brother.”

 

 

[ ](http://pics.livejournal.com/hunters_retreat/pic/00031kw3/)

 

“Didn’t they tell you it was time to go home?”

Sam looked up from the computer, his eyes red rimmed from staring too long. Dean smiled at him from the doorway. “Come on Sammy, surely Abby told you it was time to leave.”

“Yeah, I just…”

Sam trailed off and Dean just nodded. “Yeah, I get it. I had a hard time too. In the beginning, when they’d say it was time to clock out I couldn’t do it. Thing is Sam, we got nothing right now. Come on. Let’s go get some sleep and come at this thing fresh tomorrow.”

“Those people, Dean.”

“We aren’t alone anymore, Sam.” Dean said as he walked over and took the mouse from his brother’s hand. He kept clicking until the computer was closing down. “The team will be here bright and early, ready to figure this out.”

“You trust them that much?”

“I’ve had two years with them. I know you don’t trust them yet, but trust me,” Dean said softly. He was almost whispering in Sam’s ear and it wasn’t until then that he realized how close he was. He stood up, moving away and letting Sam push away from the computer. “You got a place already?” Dean asked.

“Nah, just staying in a hotel.” Sam frowned. “I wanted to see how things went before I did anything permanent.”

Dean smiled as he clapped his hand on Sam’s shoulder. “Come on then. You can stay with me.”

“I think I’m too old for the couch, Dean.”

“Good thing I have a spare room then.” Sam stared at him and Dean’s smile grew wider. “It didn’t take long at being permanent before I realized I didn’t mind it so much. Got a place of my own, a backyard. Think you’ll like it. What do you say?”

He could see the surprise in his brother’s eyes, but as much as he wanted to see Sam’s reaction to the home Dean had created, he needed to have Sam alone, away from prying eyes.

“Dean,” Sam’s voice faltered before he could continue. Dean had no idea what was in his brother’s head just then though so he kept quiet. He watched Sam swallow a couple times, his eyes going from the ceiling to the floor to Dean and back around. Finally, Sam licked his lips. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Come home with me, little brother.” Sam’s tentative smile was the only answer he needed.

 

 

[ ](http://pics.livejournal.com/hunters_retreat/pic/00031kw3/)

 

Sam couldn’t help but gape. Since he’d walked out of Abby’s lab to find his brother standing there with the team, he hadn’t had time to think. They’d been called out immediately and Sam felt every one of the team members watching him, waiting for him to screw up, except the one. Dean was the calm, confident strength at his back.

It wasn’t until he slipped into the passenger seat of the Impala that Sam felt himself relaxing. There was something about the hum of the car around him, the feeling of safety he got with Dean behind the wheel of it. Dean seemed to understand his mood too because he drove in silence. Twenty minutes to some take out joint that Dean swore was the best Chinese food he’d ever eaten, and another ten back to Dean’s place.

He could understand why Dean ended up where he did. He didn’t know the how of it yet, but he knew how much his brother needed to be a part of something. It was why he’d never been able to understand how he’d just disappeared from Sam’s life. After the way their father had always left them at the drop of the hat, he never thought Dean would do the same.

He’d been hollow for a long time after that. Dean had been his everything and he’d left Sam in his new dorm at Stanford, shoving three hundred dollars’ worth of whiskey-stained bills into his front pocket, before he ran back to the Impala and never came back.

He was sure the only reason he hadn’t lashed out again was the shock of the situation. When Dean pulled up in front of his home, Sam felt it magnified.

The house wasn’t big, but the fact that it was a house at all surprised him. There was no white picket fence, but the small front yard was well trimmed and a sidewalk cut through from the driveway to the front of the house. Dean pulled into the garage and Sam got out, bringing his bag with him as he walked behind Dean.

They walked up the sidewalk and Sam noticed the way Dean’s hands shook slightly as he opened the door. He smiled, the tension in his stomach loosening slightly at his brother’s obvious nervousness.

Dean dropped the keys into a basket by the door and moved through the hallway fast, taking the take-out food with him. Sam took a moment to get his bearings as he closed and locked the door behind him. To the right was a small sitting room, bookcases lining the walls with a leather couch and strong dark wood coffee table in front of it. To the left he could see a small office, a laptop set up on the desk with a small futon against the back wall. He could imagine Dean working late into the night until he just had to stop and relax for a few minutes.

“Hey, food?” Dean called from the other room.

Sam turned away from the office and walked past the stairs, ignoring his need to explore the second level of his brother's home, to find Dean setting out plates on the kitchen table. The kitchen itself was on the right, an open air set up that led straight into the dining room. An open doorway to the left of that showed a large living room.

“Dean, this place is-”

Dean smiled as he handed Sam a plate. “Yeah. First time I saw it I kept thinking it was too good, you know? Had to be haunted or have a poltergeist or be built on burial grounds, but nothing. I’ve been here almost a year and nothing has come knocking on the door yet.”

Sam nodded. “Yeah, it’s great.” He felt a little sick, seeing his brother like that, like it was finally sinking in; the idea that Sam wasn’t the only one that had needed to get away from their upbringing. Even if Dean wanted to hunt Sam could see that having a normal life was good for him.

They filled their plates in silence and Sam let his thoughts drift off as he ate. The dining table was next to a window looking out over the back yard. It was a large yard and Sam could almost see dogs running around if Dean didn’t need to be away so often for the job.

Dean got up and came back with a beer for each of them and Sam noticed his brother drank his pretty quick. Sam knew why. Hell, he could use something a little stiffer for this conversation, but they had a job in the morning and there were people’s lives at stake.

Instead, he ate as quickly as he could and drank his beer without speaking. When they were done, Dean put the left over take out boxes in the fridge and grabbed two more beers. “Come on Sammy. Give you the tour later. Let’s relax a bit.”

Sam followed Dean into the living room where everything was comfortable and casual. A large TV screen took up a good portion of one wall and his brother had a movie collection that could rival a video store. In the corner was a small fireplace that seemed well used. There was a large couch on the long wall and a love seat catty corner to it with a recliner on the other side of the couch. The coffee table was large enough to be shared by all and Sam got the feeling that this room was actually used quite a bit.

Sam took a seat on the couch and Dean sat at the corner of the love seat, as if he wanted to be close to Sam but didn’t want to intrude.  Sam sat back on the couch and took a long pull on his beer. Dean was leaning forward, elbows on his knees, playing with the label of his bottle.

“So,” Sam said with more confidence than he felt, “this is the part where you tell me why you left without a word and never came back.”

Dean took a deep breath before knocking back his beer. It took everything in Sam not to watch the way Dean’s throat worked the liquid down, not to remember-

“You wanted a different life, Sam. You deserved it. I wasn’t lying at the office when I said you were never gonna have a normal life with me around. The hunt would always pull at you.”

“I could resist hunting, Dean.”

“Yeah, could you stay out of it when I got hurt though? When I was going into a situation by myself, with no back up?” Sam looked down because he knew Dean had a point. “Exactly, and I couldn’t do that to you. You wanted Stanford and college and dorms. I was never gonna be able to give you that.”

“What about the things I didn’t want to change?” His voice was quiet but steady as he spoke.

Dean finished off his beer and dropped the empty on the table. “You couldn’t have the things you wanted and have a new life.”

“Maybe I could have. Maybe I could have figured it out if you’d stuck around.”

“Maybe I didn’t want to Sam. You ever think of that? Maybe I didn’t want the same things you did.”

Sam thought of all the ways he could answer that. A part of him was still furious and needed to lash out, to deny any sort of affection for his brother and treat him as nothing more than a new colleague. He knew himself better than that though. Maybe Dean deserved it, but Sam could never keep up that sort of anger for long. The truth was, Sam had always known he'd find Dean again and he'd never moved past this thing between them.

He thought about walking out and going back to his hotel, spending the night by himself, knowing his brother was on the other side of town. Neither of them would sleep and one of them would inevitably break down, showing up at the other's place at 6am with coffee and breakfast.

  
He thought about just pretending there was nothing left of before, of what it would mean and what the look in his brother’s eyes meant. But he could still read his brother and no matter how long it took to work the rest of it out, he knew what he needed to do. Instead of words, Sam stood up and dropped his beer onto the table. He didn’t bother with subtlety. It was Dean and his brother had never needed Sam to be anything but honest with him. And this was as honest as he got.

Dean’s head was leaning against the back of the love seat, his eyes closed, though his fists were clenched as if he was afraid of what would happen next. It wasn’t like Sam could run away. It wasn’t like he even wanted to. For four years he’d been worried about his brother, scared he was dead somewhere or worse, that Dean just wanted to get rid of his little brother.

Dean’s words, his reaction to the entire thing let Sam know that wasn’t true though. It made him remember the things he’d been trying to forget. He moved then, standing over his brother before he brought his first knee up. Dean’s eyes jerked open and Sam straddled his brother’s legs, settling himself on his lap.

Dean’s hands came up automatically, fitting into the grove of his hip like they belonged there. “You saying you don’t want this anymore, Dean?” he asked as he leaned closer. He was taller than he had been, the angle to get to his brother was different, but the way Dean’s breath hitched when Sam brushed their lips together was everything he remembered. He rubbed their lips slightly and when Dean kissed him back in earnest, it was like a balm to his overstressed nerves.

He melted into his brother’s body and didn’t try to hold back the moan as Dean’s tongue slid into his mouth. Sam’s fingers slid to the back of Dean’s head, angling him the way he wanted him and Dean moved with it. His brother’s hands slid up from his waist to fist in the back of Sam’s shirt, pulling their bodies closer. His hips pressed forward and Sam could feel Dean’s hard cock and he wanted nothing more than to strip his brother naked and relearn ever bit of his body.

Then Dean’s hands were in his hair though, pulling him back as Sam tried to chase his lips. “Sammy,” Dean’s voice was breathless. “Sammy, you gotta stop for a minute.”

“Why?” It was more a pout than anything else and he hated that it came out that way.

Dean brought their foreheads together, laughing softly and they were still so close Sam could feel the puff of breath against his lips. “I just … I think … we have to work together.”

Sam pulled back on his own then. “Seriously? That’s where you’re going with this?”

“No, yes, I mean, Jesus, Sammy. This isn’t what I expected when I said you could stay with me tonight.”

“What did you expect?”

“I expected you to be pissed? I don’t know, I expected you to take a few shots at me and then maybe have a few beers and talk about how fucked up our lives were, how it was totally understandable if you believed in all that psych crap, and agree to never talk about it again.”

Sam could see the way Dean tensed just saying those things. “You thought I’d moved on?”

“You had a girl. I didn’t stop in for a beer, but I kept an eye on you, you know?”

Sam shook his head. “Yeah. Jess. She was great but ... she said I wasn’t entirely hers and that she needed me to let go of whoever else had me. She deserved someone who could love her completely, someone just for her, but it wasn’t me. I had to let her go because I could never let go of you.”

Dean reached out, his palm sliding up Sam’s cheekbone in a touch far too gentle to be associated with his brother. In the small hours of the morning, when he’d been younger, when the world had finally given him a little happiness, these were the movements his brother had used then, when he could think the word lover, speak it and not feel the world watching them.

“Sammy, I never wanted to go. I did what I thought you needed.”

“You do it again and I will kick your ass here to next Sunday.”

Dean smirked. “Good thing you’re working with Abby in the lab. You need better threats. She’ll teach you to cuss like a sailor.”

Sam smiled then. “I get what you like about her. About them all really. I don’t know them yet, but they seem like a good team.”

“Just about the best.” He shrugged and smiled at up at Sam. “They aren’t Winchesters, but the next best thing.”

“So… we’re doing this right? Working side by side, come home together…”

"Sam, it won't be easy. I'm not ... you know I'm no good at this."

"You're not good at other people, Dean." Sam reminded him. "You've always known how to take care of me." He watched the emotions that flickered across his brother's face, the fear and need, and it was what Sam needed reminding of too. No matter that Dean had been the one that walked, Sam was the rock Dean had built his world around. He couldn't imagine how much it had hurt Dean to try to do the right thing for Sam.

“Is this really what you want, Sam? I mean, four years of me being gone and you're okay to just start right up where we left off?"

"I am pissed, Dean. I'm angry that you never let me know where you were, but I wasn't stupid and I knew why you were stuffing the money in my pocket as you ran out the door. I couldn't stop you then. I'm not saying it's not gonna come up again either. But you try that shit again now and I will end you, Dean. You got it?"

Dean nodded and Sam let out a deep breath. "Then this is what I want."

“Alright, but we take it slow. I mean, as slow as we can.”

“You saying you aren’t putting out tonight?”

Dean knocked Sam out of his lap, standing up to move out of the room. “Damn straight. You gotta buy me dinner first.”

“You were easier when I was sixteen.” As soon as the words were out his lips he wished he could take them back. They’d started sleeping together when he was sixteen, but the first time, the reason it even crossed their minds he hadn’t been. With the day's work still in the back of his head it pushed up too many memories he didn't want to face.

“Early morning, Sammy. Come on upstairs and I’ll grab some clothes you can sleep in.”

He let Dean go ahead of him, taking a few minutes to regain his composure.

Fucking vampires.

When he felt a little calmer, he grabbed the beer bottles and threw them out before going up the stairs. The hall went to the right and he followed it down. The first door was a large bathroom, done in white and shades of green. The next was the spare bedroom. The king size bed was covered in a dark chocolate colored comforter and looked like heaven after a day on the move.

“Here you go,” Dean said, walking in to lay a set of clothes on the bed. “It’s not perfect, but we can stop by your motel tomorrow sometime and get your things, bring them back here.”

“Yeah, sounds good.” Sam took a deep breath and then turned to look at Dean who had moved back to the doorway. “Thanks, Dean.”

Dean’s smile was warm and he wanted to reach out and touch again but Dean was right. They needed to take their time. They needed to have time to get to know one another again, to fill in the differences of four years. They needed to find a way to temper what was between them and learn how to control it in front of the team. They weren't alone anymore and from what Sam had learned, Gibbs and his team were as good as they came. If they weren't careful, they'd have a whole lot more than just a bad hunt to worry about.

“Good night, Sammy.”

He didn’t correct his brother that time. It felt good, like he’d got some measure of his brother back. It wasn’t perfect. Dean was an idiot at times and his four year disappearance was proof of that. But it wasn’t all on Dean. He knew his brother and he tried to be honest with himself. Dean was right. He’d have gotten pulled back into hunting in ways he hadn’t wanted back then. It would have poisoned him even more and he wouldn’t have had the time to come to terms with it and find himself happily back in the field.

“Good night, Dean.”

Dean left then and Sam changed, crawling between the soft sheets. For the first time in four years, he fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. For the first time in four years, his brother was there keeping him safe.

 

 

  
[](http://pics.livejournal.com/hunters_retreat/pic/00031kw3/)  
 

  
Dean did his best not to act like an idiot as he walked into the bullpen. It wasn’t all that easy though. He’d been woken up, not by his annoying alarm clock, but by soft hair brushing against his skin followed by Sam’s lips pressed to his. Sam hadn’t climbed between the sheets with him, wasn’t trying to press for anything more than a few soft kisses but damned if it wasn’t the best wakeup call since he’d left his brother in California.

They ate breakfast together, Sam clearly biting his tongue to keep from commenting on the fact that Dean still kept Lucky Charms on hand even though Dean had grown out of his fondness of them when Sam was twelve and they’d lived off them for five days. Sam still loved them as much as ever, though Dean made him French toast to go along with it.

They ate together but separated to shower and get ready for work. They had time to get Sam checked out of his hotel as well before hitting up the coffee shop that Dean favored on the way in. He also made a point of showing Sam where to buy Caf-Pows to keep him on Abby’s good side.

Dean was the first one in and he dropped his bag behind his desk, taking a deep breath as his computer booted up.

“Winchester, you’re early.”

Dean rolled his eyes but made sure Gibbs didn’t see it. Not that he wouldn’t know he did it, but it wasn’t insubordination if he did it to the computer screen, was it?

“Sam’s an early riser.”

“So he’s staying with you then?”

“He was staying in a hotel and you know I got the space.” Gibbs nodded in acknowledgement. It wasn’t a lot, but he’d had the whole team over a few times in the last year. Abby was his most frequent guest and pizza nights with her and Tony, and McGee when they could talk him into it, were pretty common. Tony was pretty good at gauging when everyone needed a break but his place wasn’t the type for hosting. Their first bad case after Dean had bought the house and Tony had just said “I’ll bring pizza?” He’d shown up with the team, even talking Ducky and Jimmy into coming along. Gibbs’s basement was great when you needed to talk to the boss or get something out of your head, but when they needed a little time just to hang out and relax, it was Dean’s place they migrated to. It was why he had three bedrooms, a futon in his office, and a couch and love seat in his living room. He also kept gruesome murder mysteries in the front room for Abby to read and the latest political and entertainment biographies for Tony.

“Wouldn’t think he’d agree the way he took to your appearance yesterday morning.”

Dean smiled. “I had that coming. But he’s my brother. You talk about being in the marines and how combat makes you a unit, how it makes you more than that? Well Sam was my brother, my charge, mine to care for and keep, and we were hunting. You can’t get much closer than we were growing up.”

“Is that going to be a problem?”

“You asking if we’d cover up for one another?” Gibbs didn’t answer and Dean shrugged. “Sam and I would never compromise a hunt. We might have broken the law when we were hunters but it was always for the job.”

It seemed to be all the answer Gibbs needed. “Good. He has a good eye of a crime scene.”

“Damn well better,” Dean mumbled before he realized he was saying it.

Gibbs smile was almost indulgent and Dean thanked the stars that DiNozzo came in at that moment, saving him from having to answer the look.

“Good morning, Campers,” Tony announced into the bullpen as he dropped his bag behind his desk. “Anything new?”

“Just got in,” Dean said with a shrug, “and Abs wasn’t in when I left Sam in the lab.”

Tony’s eyes lit up slightly and Dean realized that having an overprotective streak a mile wide where his brother was concerned was gonna give his friend a world of amusement.

McGee came running in then, a huff of apologizes as he got to his desk and started working. Dean looked over at Tony, ignored the inquiring look, and pulled up his email while he grabbed the phone and got started on his voice mail.

 

 

  
[](http://pics.livejournal.com/hunters_retreat/pic/00031kw3/)  
 

  
“We got something!”

“Sammy?”

He could hear Abby giggling in the background and Dean shook his head. He knew it wouldn’t take long for his brother to win Abby over. “Abby made me do it,” Dean could almost hear Sam’s pout and that put a smile to his lips. “What have you got?”

There was a scuffle for the phone and he was pretty sure someone dropped it. “Dean, you know it doesn’t work that way. I tell you I have something, you bring your pretty face down to my lab and I tell you. Then, you kiss me and tell me what a good girl I am.”

“So what _were_ you dreaming about last night, Abby?”

“Winchester!”

He looked over at Gibbs. “Abby and Sam have something.”

“What?”

“She wants us to come down.”

Gibbs rolled his eyes as Dean hung up, but they all walked down to the lab. It wasn’t like they had anything else to go on.

The lab was quiet when they got there until Dean realized that Abby was looking into the microscope, Sam pressed up against her back. “See?” he was asking.

“Mass Spec to the rescue!” She said as she spun, and stopped when she realized the others were there.

"Gibbs! You're late."

"What have you got Abbs?" The older man asked.

"Ethylene glycol," she said proudly, her eyebrows wiggling as she waited for someone to ask.

"What does that mean?" McGee did the honors.

"It's an organic compound used in antifreeze."

"How does that help us Abbs?" Tony asked.

Sam was watching with a slight frown and Dean rolled his eyes because really, they'd have had an answer by now if everyone would stop interrupting Abby and let her actually answer. Except that Abby wouldn't answer unless you asked. It was just one of those things you learned to live with but he could see Sam's impatience with it all.

"Well it doesn't much. Until we noticed that there was also sodium acetate," she said, looking back at Sam.

Sam took the hint and looked straight to Dean. "Deicer, Dean. He was held at an airport."

"The third victim," Tony said instantly and Dean was already nodding as he and Tony were heading to the door.

"His car was found at the airport and we didn't think anything of it since its common practice. Good job, Sammy."

Dean looked back over his shoulder and saw Sam's shake of the head. Abby was glaring but Gibbs and McGee were watching Dean. He ignored it because he and Tony finally had a lead and whatever else was going on, he'd deal with it later.

 

 

  
[](http://pics.livejournal.com/hunters_retreat/pic/00031kw3/)  
 

  
"You just love this part," Tony whispered from his position between Sam and Dean. Gibbs and McGee were making their way to the back of the hangar and it was almost time to move in.

"What part?" Sam asked.

"Tony's just jealous because he doesn't get to scream NCIS as we go in."

"Why is that?"

"Sammy, Sammy, Sammy ..." Dean admonished.

"What are they teaching the kids in FLETC these days?" Tony asked with a shake of his head.

"We have to identify ourselves when we enter the scene but NCIS wants people to know when it's a special unit case. And as I'm the resident expert on supernatural-"

"Aren't I the actual expert?"

"Shut up, Sammy. I get to call out the name."

Sam rolled his eyes. "You were always like this with a badge. Remember the time-"

"Yes," Dean answered even though he had no idea what Sam was about to say. There were far too many times they'd used a fake badge and Dean had to admit he really did like playing the part. "And no we aren't reminiscing about it in front of an NCIS agent." The way Sam grinned back at him, he was pretty sure Sam didn't have an actual incident in mind anyway. "Just remember, Sam, we have to arrest them. No killing the vampires."

Sam sighed. "Yeah, Dean. I got that part of the training."

"Time to move in," Dean said as they moved away from the shadows and towards the small door on the side of the hangar. Tony had the lock off and threw back the door, letting Dean go through first. "SPNCIS! Don't move!" He yelled as he moved in, Tony and Sam coming in behind him. Dean cursed because he was barely in before a vampire was slamming into him, knocking him on his back. It didn't have time to get to him before a red dart extruded from its neck. The vampire stumbled a few steps before falling to his knees.

"Dean, you okay?" Sam asked even as Dean was getting back to his feet.

The rest of the nest was alert by then though and they moved warily through the hangar, hiding behind huge crates that had been left there for storage and forgotten. They'd been watching, tracking at least eight vampires into the building over the course of the day. Dean heard McGee in the back and it didn't sound good, but he, Sam, and Tony were suddenly faced with five vampires and he didn't have time to worry about who else was there.

"Oh look, someone ordered delivery," one of the vampires said as they approached.

"I've always found hunter to be a bit gamy." A tall vamp at the back said.

"Really?" Tony asked as they kept moving. "The millions of monster movie lines you could come up with and you're going with bad fast food takes?"

There was no warning then. The vampires surged forward and it was an all-out shoot out as they tried to hit the targets before they managed to kill one of them. Dean barely had time to fire, let alone check on the others, but in the end there were five vampires down, plus the one from earlier, and Sam and Tony were still on their feet.

Gibbs came up from behind one of the crates, gun at the ready when he caught sight of them. "Where's McGee?"

"We haven't seen him, Boss," Tony said and they were already beginning to spread out.

"Damn it, I told him to stay close," Gibbs said as he and Tony went in one direction and Sam and Dean took another.

They got all the way to the back door again before they found themselves in a standoff with a single vampire, her teeth bared at McGee's throat. She sniffed the air and smiled, looking over at Sam and Dean. Dean stepped protectively in front of his brother and her smile demented even more. "Oh, I could never forget that scent," she said with a deep, throaty laugh. "My beautiful, baby boys. You danced so pretty for us. Tasted so saccharine in your innocence." She nuzzled up against McGee's throat. "So sweetly spiced in your sin."

"Take one of us then," Sam said, holding his gun up and taking a step around Dean and out of his grasp. "Take me. Let him go."

Dean wanted to protest but there was nothing he could do because Sam was already moving forward and he knew his brother understand what would happen the second the bitch touched him. He was sure Sam was counting on it. He took a deep breath instead, letting his hatred for vampires show.

"You won't get another chance to taste, and I know you don't forget. Your kind never does," Sam said. "So let the agent go and you can have me."

She considered it for a moment but she was half mad, had been when the vampires had found them ten years before and sealed them away from the world. It'd taken Bobby two months to find them, half dead, clinging to each other in ways they shouldn't, in ways they'd never quite gotten over. She never touched them, never asked them to do anything, but he could remember her eyes.

"No fighting, you'll come willingly."

"Yes, I will."

"Winchester!"

It was Gibbs and Dean gave a slight nod because he was sure Gibbs was looking to him for a sign that he knew what his brother was playing at. When she smiled, Sam stepped closer to her. She released McGee and Sam pushed him out of the way as the vampire grabbed for him. Sam let her pull him back and he dropped to the floor, giving Dean a clear shot.

The darts were filled with dead man's blood, like an animal tranquilizer pistol, only he'd never delivered one to the eye before. He wasn't sure the vampire would survive it, but he didn't feel any remorse as he watched the dart fly true. She fell to the ground behind Sam and Sam was spinning, pushing himself a few steps away. Dean was there, stepping between them to kick at her, see if she was still moving but there was nothing.

"What the hell was that, Winchester?"

Gibbs was pissed and Dean wasn't sure if it was the possibly-dead vamp or if it was the fact that his brother had put himself in danger like that. There was only so much he could stop from coming out now though and he figured it was better if he answered than Sam. Not that Sam would ever admit the full extent of what they'd had to do to survive that particular vampire nest, but he could do plenty of damage without realizing it.

"Vampires remember your scent. She was with the nest that marked us ten years ago," he looked at Sam then and shook his head. "I didn't think any of them had gotten away."

"I didn't either."

"Sam knew she'd take the trade off," Dean said as he looked away from the vamp. Tony and McGee were already cuffing the vampires and a supernatural containment team was already on the way from the FBI. The cuffs wouldn't hold against a strong vamp for long, but they just needed to make sure no one got antsy before the ghoul tank got there. "And Sam knew I'd take the shot."

"Go see if you can find any survivors," Gibbs ordered. Dean took a deep breath and nodded. There was a cage towards the back, the floor covered in blood and bodies. No one was moving and there was no way to tell if any were alive or not. At least it left him close enough to eavesdrop though.

Gibbs looked at Sam for a minute before he spoke. "That was a pretty heavy risk you were taking."

"No, it wasn't," Sam said without hesitation. "Dean would never let a vampire touch me. Especially not her. All I had to do was get McGee out of the way and then give Dean the opening to take the shot."

"I thought you forensics people were supposed to stay out of trouble?" Gibbs sighed. "Someone tell me how the hell I ended up with DiNozzo and two Winchesters?"

"Luck, Boss?"

"You got that right, Tony." Gibbs said with a shake of his head. "Just don't know what kind yet."

 

 

  
[](http://pics.livejournal.com/hunters_retreat/pic/00031kw3/)

  
 

Sam sat in the spare bedroom, staring at his hands, trying to make them quit shaking. They'd closed the case, one man and two women had been found still alive, though unconscious in the cage. The vampires had been taken into custody, awaiting the special courts. After filling out the paperwork, Sam had stuck around the lab, helping to take some of the overflow Abby had from other teams. When Gibbs came down at seven to leave a note for Abby, he sent Sam home.

Dean had been in the shower when the cab dropped him off and he was grateful for the silence. He didn't think he could look his brother in the eye just yet. He wasn't sure he could stay under the same roof but he'd managed when he was fourteen, he had to now.

Part of him knew he should eat but nothing sounded remotely good. Well, something did and it wasn't food and it wasn't anything he could actually ask for. He doubted it was on the menu tonight even if he found the words.

"Sammy?" He didn't look up as his brother slowly opened the door. He just took a deep breath, content to know Dean was safe for a few minutes. "Hey, you wanna-"

"No," he cut him off before he could say anything. "I'm fine."

He heard the long sigh from Dean and he expected the soft footfall of escaping feet, but instead the bed dipped down beside him. He took a deep breath and turned his head just slightly to see Dean in his periphery. "Maybe I'm not, Sam," he surprised Sam by saying. "Maybe I need to stay close tonight."

Sam did look up at him then. There was nothing dark and heated between them, just the horror of memory that had once almost robbed them of their ability to be brothers. "Yeah," he whispered as he reached for the hem of his shirt. He threw the tee off and slid under the covers, not bothering to watch as Dean got up. He turned off the light and felt Dean slide in behind him, hand pulling Sam back against his chest.

It took a good half hour before he finally felt relaxed enough to sleep. He couldn't imagine how long it would have been without Dean there. He thought back to the team and how they'd covered each other, about Jimmy and Ducky and Abby and how worried they'd been when they all got back. He couldn't help himself then.

"Abby really sleeps in a coffin?"

Dean let out a small burst of laughter, his breath settling warm and comforting over Sam's neck. "Yeah. Freaky as hell. She's gonna be pissed when I tell her that's all bullshit."

Sam felt a slight smile pull at his lips and he sighed. "Good night, Dean."

Dean's hand pulled him tighter one last time and his brother's nose was buried in his hair before he felt the fine line of tension leave Dean's muscles. "Nite, Sammy."

 

 

[  
](http://pics.livejournal.com/hunters_retreat/pic/00031kw3/)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to the awesome [](http://smidgeson.livejournal.com/profile)[smidgeson](http://smidgeson.livejournal.com/) for the beta on this one! And this goes out to the fabulous [](http://insane-songbird.livejournal.com/profile)[insane_songbird](http://insane-songbird.livejournal.com/) because she's been ~~harassing~~ cheering me on for it!! :P Hope you enjoy!


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